Category Archives: Eschatology

In this series of studies I am looking at Matthew 16:27 and 28 and discovering their first century AD implications. Jesus claimed that, in the lifetimes of some of his listeners, he would return in the glory of his Father with the angels of heaven and reward every man according to his works. In other words Jesus predicted his return in that generation of people living in the first century AD. Moreover, when he did come, he would judge each man according to his works, i.e. the judgment would immediately take place at the time of Christ’s coming. Previously, I showed how Jesus was basing his predictions upon Isaiah 40, especially verses 1-10, which also identify the ministry of John the Baptist, who was prophesied to prepare the way for the Lord (Isaiah 40:1-5; Matthew 3:1-3). Read the rest of this entry »

Jesus made a claim in Matthew 16:27-28 that he would come in the glory of the Father with the angels of heaven and sit in judgment over mankind. However, he didn’t stop with that statement. He went on to say that he would come in the Father’s glory and some of the folks, listening to him on that day, would live to see that event. Wow! What a statement! Many Christians scholars are embarrassed by Jesus’ words in this scripture and attempt to modify the power of his statement by redefining the words to mean what **they** presume Jesus said. It is amazing to see how some folks will stretch sola scriptura so out of whack, that clear speech becomes unintelligible without informed explanations. Read the rest of this entry »

In the ancient Jewish Temple, which was burned up and destroyed in 70 AD, there was a veil that hung between the Holy Place, which was the place where the priests ministered, and the Most Holy Place, which was understood to be the dwelling place of God or the place of his Presence. Josephus describes the Temple, its stones, its room, its furniture etc in his two great histories of the Jews. In his first work, Wars of the Jews, he described the temple that Herod built, and he tells us that the things found in the Temple, the altar of incense, the lampstand, and the table of shewbread, all had mystical or religious significance. Even the veil separating the two holy rooms of the building had a mystical significance—its colors, its embroidery, and its composition, all had a religious meaning. Read the rest of this entry »

Second Peter is a reminder of First Peter (2Peter 1:12-15; 3:1-2), so what we find in First Peter applies to the context of Second Peter and is worthy of mention in order to clarify difficult passages. Therefore, when Peter speaks of things like: “the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2Peter 3:10), it would behoove us, rather than force Peter’s words into a modern day, scientific context, to place such an event into the context of what Peter claimed in his first epistle. Read the rest of this entry »

Peter describes the coming of the Day of the Lord as “a thief in the night” (2Peter 3:10)! However, the context of the sudden coming of that day would be in the light of the fact that Peter mentioned that he was merely reminding his readers of what he had already told them in his first epistle (2Peter 3:1). In other words, the Day of the Lord, which would come as a thief, would occur in Peter’s reader’s generation (1Peter 1:9-13), and they were living in what is known as the last days (1Peter 1:5), and those days would be complete “in a little while” (1Peter 1:6), because Jesus was at that time ready to judge the living and the dead (1Peter 4:5, 17), since the end of all things was at hand (1Peter 4:7), and the Kingdom of God was about to be revealed (1Peter 5:1).[1]Read the rest of this entry »

Peter spoke of scoffers who denied his claim that the Lord’s coming was near (2Peter 3:3-4). It seems that many folks today are all too willing to agree with the scoffers of Peter’s day, saying the Lord’s coming is yet in the future and this is nearly 2000 years since Peter’s day. So, those Christians who try to tell us that Jesus will soon appear in our day are really agreeing with the Peter’s scoffers who mocked at his preaching of an early arrival of Jesus. I have to wonder at the strange bedfellows that error breeds. Read the rest of this entry »

I am presently considering Peter’s words at 2Peter 3:8, where Peter mentions that a day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day. Lots of folks, all futurists with respect to the coming of the Lord, want to use Peter’s words to explain the long delay in Jesus coming, as perceived by them, due to their erroneous eschatology. By ignoring the specific timeframe Peter placed upon the coming of Christ in his first epistle (cf. 2Peter 3:1), they make grandiose eschatological claims for an end of the universe and the end of time. The problem is they have no Biblical support for their overactive imaginations, so, in an effort to seem Biblically sound they redefine God’s word to fit their failed eschatological system. Read the rest of this entry »